


Flying Lessons

by OreoAmbitions



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Fluff, Found Family, Kara Danvers Needs a Hug, Lena Luthor Doesn't Know Kara Danvers is Supergirl, Sam Arias is Kryptonian, Tumblr cross post, a little bit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-05-28
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:20:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24397918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OreoAmbitions/pseuds/OreoAmbitions
Summary: Sam is having a hard time after Reign. Kara steps in to lend a hand.A pair of scenario sketches cross posted from Tumblr.
Relationships: Kara Danvers & Lena Luthor, Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor, Red Daughter | Linda Lee & Lena Luthor, Red Daughter | Linda Lee/Lena Luthor
Comments: 25
Kudos: 139





	1. Chapter 1

It's been almost a week since Sam came to National City to ask for Kara's help, but it's been only two days since The Talk.

It was Lena who approached Supergirl first, who asked for a meeting at L-Corp and then struggled to break the news. She ordered them iced coffees and they sat awkwardly on opposite sides of her desk, Lena struggling uncharacteristically to find the right words, and Supergirl trying not to think about all the times she's been in this office as Kara, Just Kara, and how much it chafes to continue the charade.

"I lied about the test results," Lena said at last. "It was- I'm sorry. It was very important to Sam. She wanted to protect Ruby, and-"

"Sam's Kryptonian," Supergirl whispered. It felt like a puzzle piece clicking into place. "Even without Reign."

"Yes."

"And Ruby..."

"Half Krpytonian. Yes. But it's Sam I wanted to talk to you about. I know the two of you have a history-"

Supergirl waved her hand, as if she could have dismissed Reign with a simple gesture. "That wasn't Sam," she said, and she meant it. "But that was months ago. Why tell me now?"

Lena gazed into her coffee, and then out the window at National City, and Supergirl waited for the inevitable request to come. She waited and waited and just when she thought she might have to break the silence herself, Lena spoke. "She's having a hard time controlling her powers, and we didn't know who else to go to. Will you help her?"

As if Supergirl could ever have said no.

It was Alex who came to Kara as Kara, who showed up at her apartment door the next evening with a bag of bribery potstickers and an anxious frown.

"Sam..." she began.

"I know." Kara set plates out on the bar and avoided meeting Alex's eyes. "Lena told me yesterday. Well, she told Supergirl."

"Oh."

There was a comfortable quiet between them for a few minutes as food was served and beer bottles were opened and only when Kara was settled comfortably on her stool did Alex start to talk.

"We stayed in touch after she left National City. And I had my doubts, but Lena said she was human and she didn't seem to want to talk about it, so I left it alone. But then a couple of weeks ago-"

"You've known about this for weeks?" Kara actually put a potsticker down out of sheer incredulity. "And you didn't tell me?"

Alex made a face. "It wasn't my secret to tell. And she promised she would talk to you about it. Well, to Supergirl. But I don't think it's Supergirl she needs right now." Alex turned sideways in her stool to fix Kara with her very best, most serious pleading expression. "She's completely terrified. She has no idea what she's doing, and she doesn't have Clark to talk her through it. She's got a lot of blood on her hands, and I just think that what she needs right now is to talk to somebody who's been through it. Somebody human. Well, not human, but you know what I mean. Somebody she can relate to."

Which is how two days ago Kara came to be hovering outside of Sam's hotel room, a hundred feet or so in the air, in her civilian clothes. She hesitated. It was dangerous to be out in civilian clothes, and so the hesitation was foolish, but she couldn't bring herself to hurry. To reveal her identity to anyone at all was a risk. To reveal it to Lena's best friend was downright stupid. But it had to be done. Kara tapped on the window, gentle at first, and then more firmly when Sam didn't come right away.

Sam pulled the blinds back with an awed expression, seeing Kara without really seeing her, already reaching for the latch when she said, "Supergirl! I- Wait. Kara?"

Kara eased herself through the window and brushed off her jeans. "I think we should talk," she said.

/////

It took two days of conversation, meditation, and tears before Sam agreed to learn to fly, and now they're here on the mountain where the DEO once put a very green Supergirl through her paces. There are no tests to run now, no military to win over, no point to prove. Just Alex, Sam, Kara, and the open sky.

"Are you ready?" Kara asks.

Sam shifts her weight from foot to foot and looks up at all that bright blue nothing. "The last time I flew, people died. You almost died."

Kara nods. They've been over this hangup a couple of times now, and there isn't much left to say. "That wasn't you," she says anyway. It doesn't hurt for Sam to hear it again.

"What if I fall?"

"It doesn't hurt." Kara looks at Sam out of the corner of her eye, at her crossed arms and closed expression, hoodie and sweats even in the heat of the day. "You might leave a mark on the mountainside, but I don't think anybody's going to notice. Not a big deal. Promise."

"It's not hitting the mountain I'm afraid of," Sam says. "It's just the falling."

Kara doesn't have an answer to that.

They stand there together for a while until Alex pats Sam twice on the shoulder and walks away to watch from the other side of the plateau. Kara pretends not to notice that Sam's hands start shaking in Alex's absence. She kicks off gently from the ground and hovers some ten feet up.

"Just come up to me," she says. "Nice and easy. And then, if you want, we can go back down."

For a moment it seems like maybe Sam doesn't know how to take off. She sort of half hops and then huffs, turns all the way around to throw her arms up with exasperation in Alex's general direction, turns back around and looks up, closes her eyes. Kara has been there.

"You know," she says. "In a couple of years you'll be back here teaching Ruby how to do this. If it is Rao's will."

Sam opens her eyes.

"You really think she'll be able to? Do all this?"

Kara shrugs. "We don't know. Maybe." There's no precedent for a half-Kryptonian child on Earth as far as Kara knows, but she's asked Lena, and Lena says probably. Almost definitely. She says Ruby is already showing signs, but that Sam is afraid to see them, that the best thing Supergirl can do for Ruby and Sam both is to make Sam as comfortable as possible in her own body.

Sam kicks off the ground. She shoots up a little too fast at first with a yelp, overshoots Kara and has to bring herself back down. Her cheeks are flushed and her whole body is trembling, but she's doing it: she's flying.

"There you go," Kara says with a bright smile. "See? Super easy. Like riding a bike."

"I don't like bikes," Sam mumbles.

Kara isn't sure if that's true or if Sam is trying to make a quip about flying. "You want to go up a little higher?"

They spend an hour on it. Sam stays close to the ground at first, testing her limits, always afraid of falling even as the sky itself steadfastly holds her up. Kara takes her on laps around the mountain range, faster and faster, higher and higher, until Sam puts on a burst of speed and breaks the sound barrier. Alex whoops far below, and Sam comes to a halt laughing and crying as Kara wraps her arms around her for a midair hug.

"See? You've got this. You were born for this."

Sam says nothing for a long while, weeping into Kara's shoulder. Kara holds her tight. To the right stretch the city and the sea, and to the left the desert on and on forever, and there's Sam in the middle of it all flying for the first time, and Kara is feeling small and magnificent and less alone than she has in a long time.

Sam pulls away and wipes her face. "Do you think..." She looks out at the city and shakes her head once, hard.

"Do I think what?"

Sam makes a pained face. "It's stupid."

"Nothing is stupid today."

"Do you think I could do what you do? Do you think I could help?" She fixes Kara with a serious expression. "I know I have a lot to learn. But I want to do some good; I feel like I have to do something. I know it was Reign who killed all those people, but it was this body, and I want... Sitting at home watching you on the news knowing I could have been there to back you up, I felt guilty. And useless."

Kara hums. "If this is something you want. But you have to really want it."

"Do I get to wear a cool suit?"

"I think Brainy would give his right arm for the opportunity to design a cool suit for you."

Sam laughs at that. "No skirts though," she says. "The skirt thing is all you."

Kara scrunches up her nose, but she doesn't answer. The skirt is getting old, and perhaps its time she had a conversation with Brainy about a new suit, too. But Brainy is about to have plenty to do, so perhaps not.

"When will you tell Ruby about your powers?"

Sam raises her eyebrows. "When will you tell Lena about yours?"

"That's not fair; it's a completely different situation," Kara protests.

"Because you're in love with her?"

Kara's stomach drops as though she'd suddenly fallen from the air. She turns away. Even from here she can spy the little black van winding its way up to the top of the mountain. Lena is in that car, and Kara's second student. Kara isn't ready. Kara isn't sure she will ever be ready.

"Let's do a few more laps before they get here," she says.

Lena arrives dressed more appropriately for a gala than for standing in the dust on the top of a desert mountain, high heels and a skin tight dress, hair falling loose over her shoulders. Kara almost laughs when she sees her, feels almost crushed beneath the sudden rush of grief and affection, but she doesn't come down to the ground. This is all difficult enough from here, thank you. Alex can do all the necessary talking; Kara will stay out of the way.

Sam touches down though and throws her arms around Lena, and Kara can hear them laughing together, can see the glow of pride in Lena's face as she holds Sam by the shoulders, can practically feel the warmth of the love between them. And then the second figure gets out of the car, shoulders hunched in her muscle tank, blonde hair pulled back into a messy ponytail. She's cautious, hovering at Lena's shoulder like a ghost.

Lena pushes the newcomer gently towards Sam. Sam cocks her head to one side and glances up at Kara, then at Alex.

"Linda," Lena says, "This is Sam. She's going to fly with you and Supergirl today. Sam, this is the woman I was telling you about."

Linda reaches for a handshake. Sam brushes her arm aside and goes for a hug.

"I didn't know Supergirl had a twin," Sam comments.

"She didn't," Linda replies.

Kara drifts a little higher into the sky. Sam comes up to join her at Lena's request, granting her a moment of privacy with Linda, at least to the extent that one can enjoy privacy in Kryptonian company. And Kara wants to look away because damn it all to hell Sam is right. Sam is right and Kara is in love and she would give anything, anything at all, to be Linda in that moment when Lena kisses her mouth right there in the dust in the sun at the top of the world.

"You can do this," Lena whispers, and Kara wants to curse her super hearing and she wants to curse her heart and she wants to curse the fact that she can't bring herself to hate the person who won Lena before Kara could work up the courage because it's Linda. Linda who nearly gave her life to save Kara's. Linda who lay unconscious in the DEO for days and days while she recovered from Kryptonite poisoning, and longer still while she waited out a solar flare so intense that for a while they weren't sure her powers would ever return. How could Kara hate her? It isn't her fault, not really.

Kara finally turns away. She does another lap around the mountain range to clear her mind and when she returns Linda is standing on the ridge of the valley leaning out over the precipice. Sam says nothing, doesn't ask why Kara never mentioned Linda, doesn't ask whether this has something to do with her decision to withhold her identity from Lena. She just squeezes Kara's shoulder and offers a sad, knowing smile.

"Are you ready?" Kara calls down.

Linda steps out into empty space.

For a split second Kara is afraid that Linda's powers haven't returned after all, that they've made a terrible mistake, and Sam must feel the fear too because they both flinch forward. But the air holds, and Linda stands there perfectly still, hovering just a few inches above the ground. It's as though the world freezes for a moment. And then she looks up, and she smiles.

Kara lets out a breath she never realized she was holding.

"See?" Sam calls down. "Like riding a bike."

Linda looks confused, and Kara laughs, and then the three of them are standing together in the sky holding one another by the forearms and the shoulders as though holding one another up.

"Do you think..." Linda begins. She looks out at the desert and shakes her head once, hard. Kara has a moment of intense deja vu.

"Do I think what?"

"Maybe we can make a better world," Linda says. She meets Kara's eyes cautiously at first, not looking straight at her, as though Kara will reprimand her or turn away.

Kara looks at each of them in turn, and then down to where Alex and Lena are leaning against the van, watching. What an unlikely family they are: the head of a covert government agency, a billionaire super genius CEO, the liberated vessel of a lost god, an accidental clone, and the last daughter of Krpyton. Well, not the last daughter after all. She smiles. "Maybe we have already begun."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I maintain that Sam being completely human after Season 3 just doesn't make any sense. She's Krpytonian. She would just rather she weren't.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A prequel/companion doodle.

Lena is still standing over Lex with a smoking gun in her hand when she calls Jess. Her brother's blood is seeping across the floor, and her best friend is a liar, and she doesn't know what else to do. So when Jess picks up the phone, she says, "Lex is dead. I shot him."

And Jess replies, "Don't worry, Ms. Luthor. I'm on my way."

Lena isn't sure what compels her to add, "Kara Danvers is Supergirl."

There's a long silence on the line. Lena can hear the vague background noise of Jess getting ready to come to her rescue. "I know," Jess says at last. "She didn't tell me; it was the way she looks at you that gave it away."

Lena hangs up . The room feels empty and crowded all at once, and she's just committed a crime, and she's just said goodbye to her brother for the last time, and there's been so much betrayal, and she feels like she can't breathe. She cries and she hates herself for it. She doesn't even know which part of it all she's crying about.

She's barely made it back to her apartment when Alex calls. She looks at the cellphone ringing on the kitchen counter and she considers turning the ringer off - honestly, fuck anyone with the last name 'Danvers' right now - but she thinks better of it. Maybe Kara's been hurt. Maybe she needs help. There is nothing, not even a betrayal like this, that will keep Lena from coming to Kara's aid when it really matters. Not a damn thing. She lets the phone go to voice mail anyway, and she pours the drink she's been too upset to touch down the sink before she calls Alex back.

Alex does need help, but not with Kara. She leads Lena down into the basement of the DEO, deeper than Lena has ever been before, to a medbay Lena has never seen. It makes her wonder what other secrets the DEO might have been keeping all this time. The figure on the bed is so still that Lena might have thought she were dead if it weren't for the rasping sound of her breathing, shallow and fast, and the sickly green light flickering through her veins. Lena looks at Red Daughter and sees Kara and almost cries out in spite of herself. _Not Kara_ , she tells herself. _Not Kara, not Kara, not Kara._

"Red Daughter," she says out loud. She still has to swallow down the tears that are threatening an encore but here, trembling in the doorway of a top secret government medical facility, is not the place. And this is not the time.

"She's not getting better," Alex says.

"Kryptonite poisoning?" Not that Lena really needs to ask. She pulls a box from her pocket. A suit meant for Supergirl, but then, Supergirl is Kara is Red Daughter in a way, so what does it matter? As the suit unfolds over Red Daughter's body, Lena thinks to herself that in an odd way she is all that's left of Lex. His Kryptonian pet. His legacy.

"How did this happen?"

"Supergirl was down; Lex had a Kryptonite cannon. Red Daughter threw herself in front of the blast."

Lena thinks of Lex's mocking laughter, of gun metal hot in her hand, of the smell of blood. "She's going to live," she says. It's more of a wish than a declaration, but Alex doesn't need to know that. "She'll need a transfusion."

Alex nods. "I'll get Supergirl. Now?"

"Tomorrow. They both need to rest."

* * *

Lena sits in that dark room all night holding Red Daughter's hand while the suit filters kryptonite out of her blood bit by bit. Fast enough to keep her alive. Not fast enough to make her better. Only Supergirl can do that, and it chafes at Lena's pride, but there it is. Lex was right about one thing: humanity is only worth so much in the company of gods. Still, here is one god who would be dead now if it weren't for Lena. That's not nothing.

Alex arrives in the morning looking cowed and leading a stonefaced Jess, who has come bearing food, a change of clothes, and Lena's laptop. She tells Lena that she "took care of it" and Lena nods but doesn't bother to answer the unspoken question on Alex's lips. So that's that. Lex is gone and gone and gone. But it's not important now, because Red Daughter is very much alive, and until she's stable that's all that matters. Jess looks at the vitals on the monitor without comment.

"Will that be all, Ms. Luthor?" she asks.

"Can you clear my schedule for the next few days?"

"It's already done."

Thank the fucking Lord for Jess.

Supergirl appears in the doorway later that same morning, perfectly still for once in her life, tears in her eyes, not quite meeting Lena's gaze. She kneels next to Red Daughter's bed and squeezes her arm and whispers something in Krpytonian which Lena isn't sure Red Daughter can even hear through the helmet, let alone understand, but then again, she isn't sure she can't. Then Supergirl rolls up her sleeve and pulls up a chair.

"How long will this take?"

It takes four hours, and it's awful. Kara shudders as the first of the Krpytonite hits her system and Lena wants to look away and she wants to tell Kara that she knows it's her and she can't do either of those things. She watches that eerie green glow creep through Kara's veins and feels sick. What if this doesn't work? What if they both die by Lena's hand?

Red Daughter stirs an hour in, groans, coughs, calls for Alex. Alex shoots Kara a puzzled look but she takes Red Daughter's other hand anyway. "I'm here," she says, and Red Daughter stills. Half an hour later they have to bring in a bed for Kara when she can't hold herself up in the chair anymore. An hour after that Red Daughter's vitals start to improve.

Kara is in the kryptonite suit for three days. So is Red Daughter. Lena spends every waking moment perched on a chair between their beds, ostensibly working, but mostly crying. They're both unconscious most of the time, so it's not like there's anyone but the DEO's security camera to see her moments of weakness. She prays a lot, but she couldn't say who it is she's praying to. God? Rao? The man in the moon? She prays in silence because she's never sure when Kara is and isn't awake. Red Daughter doesn't wake at all.

On the fourth day, Alex moves Supergirl upstairs.

On the fifth day, Sam calls.

"Everyone is talking about what happened," she says. "I keep thinking that I should have been there to help." And then, "I crushed the handle on the car door today. I wasn't even mad, I was just trying to open it. I told Ruby it was a hit and run but she's not stupid; she's going to figure this out."

Lena listens to Red Daughter's rhythmic breathing and considers telling Sam that there's another Kryptonian in the world. Instead she says, "You're going to be okay. Did you enroll in that meditation class you were talking about?"

On the sixth day, Red Daughter wakes up.

It's the sixth night, really. They've finally taken Red Daughter out of her kryptonite suit and have brought in the sun lamps. Lena, used to sleeping in a dark room, is tossing and turning on Kara's vacated hospital bed but too stubborn to leave. What if something happens in the night? What if Red Daughter gets worse and Lena isn't there to help?

So she's on her feet in an instant when she hears whimpering from across the room, and she's already there to gently push Red Daughter back against the bed when she starts to thrash against the wires and the needles connected to her body. Two blue eyes meet hers, and the struggling stops.

"Can you tell me your name?" Lena asks. She tells herself she's asking because she wants to better understand the mental state of the patient. In truth she just wants to avoid another secret.

"Alex?"

"She went home for the night, but she'll be here to see you in the morning." Probably Alex would be here in half an hour tops if Lena were to call her right now, but Lena doesn't see the point.

"No," Red Daughter says. " _Alex_. Your brother."

Lena takes a breath to speak, but no words come out. Red Daughter's gaze is flickering back and forth between her eyes, and one hand has found Lena's.

"He's dead," Lena manages at last. And then, because the avoidance of secrets goes both ways, she adds, "I killed him. After his fight with Supergirl."

Surprise, grief, anger, and relief cross Red Daughter's face in succession. All she says is, "Good. And Supergirl?"

"She's okay. She was here a couple of days ago. Gave her blood to save your life."

"Then we are even."

"I suppose you are."

They stare at one another. Lena is suddenly aware of how close she is, one hand still on Red Daughter's shoulder, the other in her grasp, their thighs touching where Lena is perched on the edge of the bed. The sun lamps are too warm for her comfort.

"Can you tell me your name?" Lena asks again.

Another succession of feelings: confusion, grief, anger, sadness. "Alex called me Linda."

"Do you want me to call you something else?"

"I don't have anything else."

The first time Linda tries to walk, she falls down and then sits on the floor crying. When she finally pulls herself together, it's to ask how long she has until she has to leave.

Lena and Alex look at one another and then at Linda.

"What do you mean, leave?" Alex asks.

"If I don't have my powers, I'm worthless to you."

Lena has to get out of the room because otherwise she's going to lose her temper in front of Linda, and Linda will think it's her fault and not Lex's. She paces in the hallway with her hands balled into fists so tight her muscles twitch, and then she puts her head up against the wall and she lets out a long frustrated growl.

"I think we should move her upstairs," she tells Alex. "I think it will be good for her to see people."

When Linda can finally walk on her own again, Alex agrees.

Lena goes back to work. Kara texts once in a while, but Lena doesn't answer often or at length and Supergirl doesn't stop by. Lena wonders whether Kara knows that she knows, or whether she's just picking up on the unspoken tension. She tells Kara that she's just so busy with work that she can't spare the time to hang out, but of course Kara is aware that she's spending every free minute with Linda. Lena justifies it by telling herself that Linda doesn't really have anyone else.

Linda says she misses reading, and so Lena begins to bring her books. A trickle at first, but she goes through them so fast that by the end of the week Lena is bringing her a stack every day. History and romance, biology and social theory. It takes her two days to finish all seven volumes of Harry Potter. She does His Dark Materials in an afternoon. Alex gives her a copy of Bridge to Terabithia; Lena bans her from providing books after that.

Ruby is suspended for shattering another student's rib cage. She swears it was an accident; she doesn't know how it happened. Her school enrolls her in anger management classes, and Ruby says she doesn't need them but she can't say it without getting angry, and so the classes stay. Sam is inconsolable over the phone.

"She doesn't know what's happening to her," she says. "I don't even know what's happening to her."

Lena wants to say, _It's the same thing that's happening to you_. Instead she says, "Have you considered talking to Supergirl about it?"

Sam says, "I'm sorry Lena, I have to go."

Linda starts attending physical fitness classes in the gym with the DEO recruits. She doesn't speak to them, and they don't speak to her, but Lena hopes it's good for everyone involved. Once in a while Supergirl lingers in the doorway, watching Linda's progress, but she makes the human recruits too nervous to visit with any frequency. When Linda is in the medbay, she doesn't visit at all.

And then one day Lena gets a text message from Alex: _Linda left in the middle of class. She seemed upset_. Lena walks out in the middle of a meeting and trusts that Jess will make it somehow okay.

She finds Linda leaning against the wall in the medbay bathroom. Her tears have dried, but her eyes are still puffy and red, and she's still wringing her hands. She looks at Lena warily, as though she expects to be in trouble. Lena supposes that if Lex were here, she would be.

"They said I wasn't real," Linda whispers. "I'm just a copy. And it's- It's true, isn't it? I'm nothing. I'm never going to fly again. On the ground, I can’t even keep up."

Lena feels something old and painful inside of her shift. It feels like childhood, and not in a sunshine and butterflies kind of way. It feels like cowering under Lilian's gaze. It feels like Lex throwing her work in the dirt. _You'll have to do better than that if you ever want to be a real Luthor_.

Lena reaches out a tentative hand to stroke Linda's cheek, and when she doesn't pull away, she brings the second hand up to cup her chin.

"You feel real to me," Lena says.

Maybe it shouldn't be a surprise when Linda kisses her, but it is. She steps into Lena's space and before Lena can register that she should perhaps step away Linda's mouth is on hers and it's... good. Linda tastes like sweat and tears and something Lena can't define. She brushes her tongue over Linda's bottom lip and her breath hitches when Linda moans and slips an arm around her waist.

It's like that cliche: it feels like a puzzle piece slipping into place. Only Lena knows the edges don't quite line up, and the colors aren't right, and she's only going to make more work for herself in the long run if she leaves this piece here, this imperfect fit. She knows it when Linda deepens the kiss and Lena has to keep from gasping Kara's name into her mouth. She knows it, but she doesn't walk away.

Sam agrees to come to National City. "I can't take this anymore. I have to do something."

Lena promises to talk to Supergirl for her, and it's probably the most uncomfortable promise she's ever made. "Next week?"

"The week after; we have a thing with Ruby's school next week. Will that work?"

"I'll make it happen."

Lena opens a blank message to Kara's personal phone and considers asking her right then and there if she would be willing to talk Sam through understanding and controlling her powers. But that would mean admitting that she knows who Kara is, and it would be a petty way to break the ice, and Lena has marks on her neck from last night when Linda discovered that she could make Lena squirm by sucking just so, and all of this is just wrong. She closes the messaging app.

Two days later she falls down the stairs in the DEO. It's these damn heels. A Luthor should be allowed to wear practical shoes. She steps just wrong and falls backwards, has only an instant to acknowledge that she's probably about to break her neck when Linda catches her.

"You have to be careful," Linda admonishes.

Lena laughs. She laughs because Linda was at the bottom of the stairs talking with Alex when she fell. She laughs because there's no way Linda could have gotten to her in time.

"Congratulations," Alex says, patting Linda's shoulder as she walks by. "You've just graduated from medbay."

They agree that even though Linda is recovering her powers, she should stay in the DEO, at least for the time being. The night she moves into her new room she asks if Lena will stay with her. Lena agrees without hesitation. They share a bed for the first time, but they've agreed in advance not to go any further than that. Linda's arms are so gentle around Lena in the night, her fingers absently rubbing circles across Lena's hip, her breath hot on the back of Lena's neck, and the whole thing is driving Lena absolutely mad. She has that wrong-piece feeling when she turns to kiss Linda's mouth.

"Are you ready to fly tomorrow?" she asks, mostly to distract herself from the heat pooling between her legs and from the thought of Kara holding her like this, pressing kisses to her jaw, slipping a thumb under the waistband of her shorts.

"I'm ready if that's what you need me to be," Linda replies.

"I don't need you to be anything," she says.

Linda smiles at her sadly in the half light. "Of course you do," she says. "You need me to be her."

Lena doesn't ask who 'her' is. She doesn't have to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guess I wasn't done with this angsty mess.


End file.
